Vlad Mamut is the CEO and Co-Founder of bowmo. He is leading bowmo’s rapid growth from ideas to revenue. Vlad is driving innovation and execution across the key areas of product delivery, technology, cash flow, corporate development and investor management. Vlad leverages 30+ years of professional experience and passion for technology, people, software design, cognitive computing and big data and a deep understanding of business. He has an outstanding record for delivery, execution and strategic leadership, and an open minded approach to solving everyday puzzles. His leadership style inspires cross-functional teams and categories owning, elevating and integrating their core competencies to create company-wide success.

How did you get into the industry?

For me the “industry “is Technology and always has been. As an elementary school kid I used PlayDoh and found it unfulfilling as a toy. My father was an electrical engineer and so I ventured to give energy to things first with batteries. I built my first electrical toy car at 8 years old, fixing the eletric motor to the chassels with PlayDoh I had. I guess I wanted things to evolve and move quicker while using things I had and so that is exactly what I did with that toy car and that is what I look to do with bowmo. I understood automation early and that you had to build something quicker and faster and better to get into the race. I ignored the toy box instructions of how to build it and built something better based on a new theory. That car was followed up by the electrical engineering studies then software and programming. I was inspired by my mentor, who just in his twenties at the time, was the youngest professor at my university. I worked wth him on my Doctorate Studies in Computer Science back in the USSR at the Kharkov Transport Institute, and then Georgia Tech. That all pushed me forward to today. However being a hiring manager always in search of more intiutive and faster candidate results helped me to develop the idea that today is bowmo.

Any emerging industry trends?

Mobile services; working and building from different spaces and collaborative efforts are the way forward. I also have affinity for the ability that provides to be accessible to clients and customers 24/7. At bowmo this translates to our efficiency of “ALWAYS ON”

Any industry opportunities or challenges?

We are focused on our second round of funding while rapidly building the customer base. The challenge is always having people who you are with limited attention spans, long standing legacy systems and long tenured systems or software relationships already in place. The thinking can be old and with HR Tech we find that some decisionmakers have become complacent and efficiency is not always seen as a necessity. They grew too comfortable doing things the way that they have always done it.

bowmo is changing the culture of recruiting with its SaaS. A bigger challenge is the speed at which decisions are made, there is a tsunami of change happening in the recruiting industry and the sales cycle is long to convince a potential customer and gain synchronicity. Finally securing investors with a long-term vision of realizing the benefits of bowmo without expecting immediate ROI but delivery of real value is really hard. We see a strong correlation between what is expected and how to balance those expectations.

Inspiration for the business idea, and your vision for the Business?

Frustration of my own as a hiring manager, with recruiters who seemed unable to find the best candidates for the roles I had opened and the likelihood of missing out on a great candidate to work on my business was the inspiration for building and offering bowmo. We seek to make organizations better equipped for the future by offering them the software to integrate.

What's next for the Business in the near future?

What comes next for bowmo is to exploit its implications for other industries; HRTechnology is definitely not the only place that it can be used.

Your key initiatives for the success of the Business?

The main initiative is to approach all people, customers and clients as learning for lifetime opportunities. Being structured and not indulging in thoughts without action is also a key initiative that leads to encouraging people to deliver and be at the top of their centers of excellence. Having team members with views of their role as part of the future of the bowmo business is a strong initiative and well as moving at rapid pace to capture growth opportunities. I want to make sure that people understand that bowmo is a verb and have structured thinking while still embracing boundary-less behavior. If people know a better way it is good for them to feel invited to share it. We must honor the efficiences matrix while pushing for better collaboration.

Your most difficult moment at the Business? (and what did you learn?)

Learning the limitations of “partnership” has been hard, Acknowledging what can and cannot be done and who is capable of what without seeming that you are giving up on people. The Albert Einstein saying of “…if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid,” …that rings true in this business.

Ideal experience for a customer/client?

The ideal experience is one where customers are using bowmo as a verb and reporting a quicker connection with the right candidates and a shorter time to fill their requisitions. When they are recommending bowmo to others in the industry, we will have delivered and ideal experience.

How do you motivate others?

To motivate I dress for the role that I am in. I hold the mindset of leading a team and I stay alert.

Career advice to those in your industry?

I advise people to be a sponge for knowledge and invest in a lifetime of learning. I also recommend reading Zero to One by Peter Thiel. It is a great book for those who need insights and notes on building a modern startup.